Create React App and MVPs

create-react-app is a great little tool by Facebook that allows the creation of React apps with a single command. It’s extremely simple and very effective: in just one week of work, the authors removed a huge boat anchor to React productivity, being the initial setup of a diverse and ever-changing pile of development tools. I also love how a simple eject command allows the developer to continue down their own path of tool customization without any sort of “lock-in”. It has nowhere near the power of a tool like Ember CLI, but it isn’t trying to at this point; while usable right away, there’s still plenty of room to grow and experiment with improvements in the future.

It immediately reminded me of what I call “the skateboard diagram” by Henrik Kniberg. Rather than building the “complete” version of a product first, build the most basic version that allows you to gather feedback, then improve in further iterations. The end result is a product that’s more stable, available sooner, and solves real problems more so than the traditional method of “build it then ship it” development.